RTO Insider Quotes Locke Lord’s Josh Kaplowitz on Evolution of U.S. Offshore Wind Industry and Renewable Energy Modernization Rule

Locke Lord Washington, D.C., lawyer Josh Kaplowitz was quoted by RTO Insider on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s joint finalized overhaul of their offshore wind leasing and permitting regulations, dubbed the Modernization Rule. Kaplowitz explains that the new rule is intended to provide regulatory and financial certainty for wind energy on the Outer Continental Shelf and is a crucial update to a regulatory structure created 15 years ago, when the U.S. offshore wind industry was in its infancy.

“They were furiously writing regulations, and the only model they had for offshore energy was oil and gas,” Kaplowitz says. “[T]hey did their best at the time to try to adapt these oil and gas regulations to this brand-new industry, or at least completely new in the United States and still pretty new in Europe,”

He adds that there are a few missed opportunities in the revision, “such as greater certainty in permitting timelines or more structure in leasing schedules.”

“Overall, it was necessary, and it should be really helpful,” Kaplowitz notes. “Is it sufficient to make sure that the industry can accelerate and endure through changes in administration? I don’t think so. But that’s kind of the nature of the beast. What they did was very good.”

Read the full RTO Insider article (subscription may be required) and read Kaplowitz’s article on the topic “Offshore Wind Gets Some Modern Love: BOEM/BSEE Update Regulations to Better Reflect Current Practices.”